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What getting a doctors appointment is going to be like if we get what Nova wants:

Dr. office: Hello, doctor's office.

Me, today(1/5/13): Yes, I have the flu and need to see the doctor.

Dr. office: OK, we can squeeze you in March 13.

It's already happening. I've been really sick since NY Eve day and felt so bad that Thursday called and begged to get in to the doc's office. Usually if there's something other than routine, they can fit you in. Instead I got in yesterday. By that time whatever virus I had picked up started to finally wain, so went there anyway to just get follow up advice, tylenol, extra Vit C, Cold-Eeze, salt water gargle, etc. Now at least if SR gets it, I'll be prepared with extra cold eeze, etc.

I won't comment on what I think of the Dept of Education. After sitting through some of those education classes at college in order to have a fallback plan if my majors didn't help, I have no respect for those courses, a big waste of time. Federal beaurocrats and education is a double pain. I aced those classes and never cracked the book, slept through some of the classes and didn't really miss all that much. It was mostly drivel.

‎" To the world you are just one more person, but to a rescued pet, you are the world.""A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves!"

It's already happening. I've been really sick since NY Eve day and felt so bad that Thursday called and begged to get in to the doc's office. Usually if there's something other than routine, they can fit you in. Instead I got in yesterday. By that time whatever virus I had picked up started to finally wain, so went there anyway to just get follow up advice, tylenol, extra Vit C, Cold-Eeze, salt water gargle, etc. Now at least if SR gets it, I'll be prepared with extra cold eeze, etc.

I won't comment on what I think of the Dept of Education. After sitting through some of those education classes at college in order to have a fallback plan if my majors didn't help, I have no respect for those courses, a big waste of time. Federal beaurocrats and education is a double pain. I aced those classes and never cracked the book, slept through some of the classes and didn't really miss all that much. It was mostly drivel.

A classic case of confirmation bias. What you experienced has nothing whatsoever to do with Obamacare. The simple fact is that for all the hand wringing over the impending shortage of doctors if everyone gets proper healthcare in the US, we already have fewer doctors per capita in the US than most Euroculture countries. Doctors don't like to have empty slots in their day; they overbook to ensure that it doesn't happen.

Having said all that, my primary care physician doesn't overbook and I rarely have to wait more than 5 minutes to be seen. My nephrologist on the other hand, deals with people who have serious existing problems and sometimes runs a little late. I can forgive the nephrologist because unlike many of her specialty, she does more than look at numbers and treat with pills and machines. She discusses diet and stress and other aspects of healthcare including the effectiveness of various possible treatments, including treatments which are nonclinical.

We do need more doctors. We need more doctors in some fields and fewer in others. We currently "let the market decide" to some degree, and that results in people wandering outside their training. We need our state universities and teaching hospitals to ramp up for the need in advance. We need them to stop playing Good Old BOy type games and to recruit students with potential from a young age instead of complaining that too few students are qualified to begin the process. There are kids out there who don't know that they can be doctors. That isn't a measure of their intelligence, it's a cultural thing we have indulged in the name of continuity. We can't afford to play the hereditary doctor game anymore.

You probably could have gotten in had you been more demanding, and failing that could have gone to Urgent Care could you not?

While you were hanging yourself , on someone else's words
Dying to believe in what you heard
I was staring straight into the shining sun

How does what get paid for? Healthcare? It's paid for by premiums, co-pays, government programs and indigent subsidies/writeoffs. In a single payer system you pay your premiums to Medicare and you pay co-pays like Medicare recipients do now.

While you were hanging yourself , on someone else's words
Dying to believe in what you heard
I was staring straight into the shining sun

No, we do not have to pay higher taxes. That's just one option on the table.

Problem is that lawmakers are too blind and incompetent to put in the effort of making sure every tax dollar collected is put its most effective use.

I'll bet that if we took the entire federal public assistance budget for a month, furloughed all the govt seatwarmers and paper pushers for that month, and divided the lump sum into checks for all current recipients of assistance, they'd get a year's worth of benefits in that check.

The Salvation Army manages to disburse ~90% of all the funds it collects as assistance and services. I'll bet the fed can't hit 50%.
THAT's where we should be looking to maintain and increase the effectiveness of the social safety net...

hardly a valid comparison but since you claimed it: Medicare's overhead is estimated @ 1.4% to 5% while private insurers overhead is estimated at 12% - 30%.

By the time Bush's second term was over, most Americans were against the war. Obviously, most Americans would be concerned about the economy. Bush's approval rating was way down by the time he left office.

President George W. Bush's job approval rating has dropped to 28%, the lowest of his administration. Bush's approval is lower than that of any president since World War II, with the exceptions of Jimmy Carter (who had a low point of 28% in 1979), and Richard Nixon and Harry Truman, who suffered ratings in the low- to mid-20% range in the last years of their administrations.

Nearly four out of five Americans, including 70 percent of Republicans, believe civil war will break out in Iraq — the bloody hot spot upon which Bush has staked his presidency. Nearly 70 percent of people say the U.S. is on the wrong track, a 6-point jump since February.

"I'm not happy with how things are going," said Margaret Campanelli, a retiree in Norwich, Conn., who said she tends to vote GOP. "I'm particularly not happy with Iraq, not happy with how things worked with Hurricane Katrina."

Republican Party leaders said the survey explains why GOP lawmakers are rushing to distance themselves from Bush on a range of issues — port security, immigration, spending, warrantless eavesdropping and trade, for example.

I'm sorry, but the liberals warned them about some of that stuff. They didn't listen. They whine later.

Looked at the linked content, and I'll grant that the 50% figure I threw out was a bit of hyperbole...BUT

The source itself rates the content as "half truth".

Besides the "other factors" that they themselves allude to as making Boxer's statements "half true", the comparison of private vs. public overhead is specious.

A chronic complaint of most private entities is that the administrative burden of Medicare increases cost to patients, doctors, and facilities alike. In effect, Medicare, by placing its administrative requirements on the deliverers of covered care, has artificially shifted much of what should be its own overhead onto the private sector.

Also, Medicare is only one segment of the federal entitlement budget, about 22% of the total federal budget. Add in SS and Welfare, and entitlement spending adds up to a little over 60% of total federal spending.

What I'd like to see is a breakout of the budgets for Medicare, SS, and Welfare, showing how much of that budget actually gets paid out in benefits, labor, facility support, etc. vs. total budget for each expenditure. I distrust the Medicare report of overhead for the reasons cited in the article, and for the fact that nowhere in any articles I can find, is the non-value-added manpower and labor mentioned. Only fixed costs like facilities, utilities, and hard goods ever seem to get mentioned when any of these articles discuss "overhead".

Still haven't found any source for budget breakouts like this....

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.

A classic case of confirmation bias. What you experienced has nothing whatsoever to do with Obamacare. The simple fact is that for all the hand wringing over the impending shortage of doctors if everyone gets proper healthcare in the US, we already have fewer doctors per capita in the US than most Euroculture countries. Doctors don't like to have empty slots in their day; they overbook to ensure that it doesn't happen.

Having said all that, my primary care physician doesn't overbook and I rarely have to wait more than 5 minutes to be seen. My nephrologist on the other hand, deals with people who have serious existing problems and sometimes runs a little late. I can forgive the nephrologist because unlike many of her specialty, she does more than look at numbers and treat with pills and machines. She discusses diet and stress and other aspects of healthcare including the effectiveness of various possible treatments, including treatments which are nonclinical.

We do need more doctors. We need more doctors in some fields and fewer in others. We currently "let the market decide" to some degree, and that results in people wandering outside their training. We need our state universities and teaching hospitals to ramp up for the need in advance. We need them to stop playing Good Old BOy type games and to recruit students with potential from a young age instead of complaining that too few students are qualified to begin the process. There are kids out there who don't know that they can be doctors. That isn't a measure of their intelligence, it's a cultural thing we have indulged in the name of continuity. We can't afford to play the hereditary doctor game anymore.

You probably could have gotten in had you been more demanding, and failing that could have gone to Urgent Care could you not?

If you read the comment that I was replying to, I didn't attribute my problem to Obamacare, just that it was difficult to get in. A friend is a resident specializing in neurology. His comment was that he's very worried about the bills that he's run up in a prestigious med school and the liklihood of ever paying it back because of the uncertainties of Obamacare. (He's not from this area).

I have a suspicion that many docs down here are going to retire. There have been articles in our local lib rag about how so many more baby boomers will be retiring to the Sarasota area soon. Combine docs retiring as they don't want to be slaves to Obamacare, more students opting not to go to medical school at the time when more docs will be desperately needed, and we'll always be waiting a long time for appointments.

And unless I'm extremely sick, wouldn't go to one of those urgent care places. They have no idea of existing health problems. It's like I had a vet in St Louis in a large clinic that only had a 4 hour window that was uncovered. If I'd select a vet so my dogs could get the best quality health care in a crisis, why would I do less for myself at an urgent care clinic? I don't have that luxury down here for our dogs, but thankfully we have younger, healthier dogs. I needed the best of care for Blue (the grey pictured in my avatar). He had epilepsy and other problems for many years and was kept in good shape by our vet in St Louis. He only lasted about a year here.

‎" To the world you are just one more person, but to a rescued pet, you are the world.""A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves!"